Alice Revived
by Grimoire Mozzeltov
Summary: Escape from Rutledges, and crazed villagers. Still running in her heart though. Will Alice find respite? I dunno yet. r+r I own none of the characters and places except the ones you don't recognize.
1. Killing me Softly

Part the first:  
  
Three months. Alice made a scoffing sound. Seemed more like three lifetimes. But the Hatter figured it to be three months "by the hands of my butter-watch!" he would say, crossing himself the wrong way. Alice was too tired to argue so she left.  
  
Three months.  
  
She lived in a village south of the Caterpillars Garden, Of which he was the ruler and sole occupant), except for the birds and worms,but they didn't listen to him.She liked it in the village, she lived alone above the barbers shop.  
  
Three excruciating lifetimes ago: She fell from the sky into a maimed Wonderland. Everything was swollen, fragmented, and carniverous.  
  
The card gaurds?, They'd seemed so harmless before. But now she had knelt amidst thier corpses, barely alive and covered in blood. Hers and thiers. "Damn", she thought. "I didn't know cards had pulmonary systems." But secretly, silently she was sure that the Red Queen had shot them full of juices, like a filled donut, so it'd be messier when she executed them. Which would mean that Alice would have been rather a delicacy to the Queen, who would have dug beneath her skin and pulled out her veins to hang about the room, tossed her organs into the courtyard for the crows."Oh well" ,thought Alice,"I'll have to kill the bitch as long as I'm stuck here.  
  
And so it Began:Her time had been a blur of bones crunching, fluids dripping, skin tearing, de-humanizing rage.She shuddered, hearing the echoes of her screams, piercing, feral.  
  
The Hatter in his Whorehouse, covered with syphilitic sores. That one had been euthanasia. She could still see the flames. However, the Duchess had been her first kill. Regrettable, considering she had been the only tolerable person in Wonderland before. The Cheshire Cat was as aloof as ever. However half of his ear was gone, he got sassy. Tweedle-dee, and Tweedle-dum had grown into evil, lecherous men, they tried to use her. And the queen was more disgusting than ever! After her death the people wanted Alice in the Queens place. Alice hid most of the time.  
  
One day she came into the caterpillars garden.  
  
Moments of peace were rare, so she was carefull to stay in the  
  
shadows of the mushroom patch, nearly jumping out of her skin when a wheezy drawl came from behind her. "Alice?" came the pietulant voice of the caterpillar. "Want a drag?" he queried holding the mouthpiece of his pipe towards her.  
  
Alice was wary.  
  
"Why are you offering all of a sudden?" She asked testily. The caterpillar shrugged and went back to smoking. "Fine way to act!" he said," towards one you looked so hard for!"  
  
Alice wrinkled her nose,"I didn't come looking for you!" The caterpillar clucked a little, "Ah, but you found me though! And isn't that what happens when you look for someone? You find them!" He held out the pipe again. "Don't be foolish Alice, I'm only offering the second time because you're the new queen!" He hissed between a  
  
sadistic grin.  
  
Just like he'd pushed a button Alice grabbed the stem and took a deep pull, anything that could keep him so blissfully unaware she needed to try.  
  
Immediately everything grew dark, and swirled about her. As if covered by a mist, a great stone ceiling came into view. While in the distance, the sound of metal twisting and tearing.  
  
As the room became clearer she realized that it was not the sound of broken machines squealing, but the tortured screams of humans all around her.  
  
She sat up slowly in her thin cotton smock, then fell back into the squeaky musty bed. She felt weak, as if she hadn't moved in ages. Her limbs heavy and cold. Silent grey forms moved past the small, screened, window in her door. One seemed to look in and shake it's head sadly before moving on. There was a thumbnail moon outside, gently bathing a sparse yet green courtyard outside her window. And in a few windows there were flickering lights, she flinched at the light.  
  
She laid there a while, breathing heavily, and letting the screams and moans slowly die out as they mingled with the tatters of conversations that floated inside her head. Was I in Wonderland again? she thought.  
  
  
  
With a great effort she sat up, desperately trying to figure out where she was. Hot tears welled up in her eyes as dark sobs wracked her body, flooding her skin with blood again. Noone heard her.  
  
After a while it became easier to move and breathe.  
  
The door creaked and in came a bent little man, with thick spectacles and a long white coat, turned gray with dust and sweat. "Could it be!?" he chirped, beady eyes growing behind the tele-scope lenses he called glasses. He shuffled up, taking her wrist,mumbling somthing about "his most confounding case" and putting his hand to her head while attempting to put his stethescope on her bare back. Alice had the sense that she'd fallen ill, but under no circumstance was she to be molested in such a manner. "My good man!" she cried. "You will withdraw your hands from my person at this very moment!" He fell back a little, obviously stunned. "My father!" she continued," would not accept this behaviour, and as soon as I contact him..." but she was cut off. The doctor attempted a look of pity but only succeeded in making the knowing smile jerk even more disturbingly across his face. Orderlies and nurses swirled up behind him like a great ghostly bird and pinned her screaming as the Doctor inserted somthing sharp and cold into her left buttock.  
  
After strapping her to the bed the orderlies and nurses were dismissed while the doctor stayed. Alice ranted and tore at the leather straps, the restraints driving her mad.  
  
After about a minute she began to feel woozy and tired and the words became quieter. The room became fuzzy and her body still. Out of the consuming darkness came that wheedley voice again," oh my poor girl", it said as her eye-lids were peeled open and a bright light shined into them, "your parents have been dead since the fire. How could you have forgotten?"  
  
The fall didn't phase her. But as she lay beneath a swath of greenery the wind came up and pushed the branches aside, exposing her eyes to the sun. Light, dark, light, dark, and over and over. Her eyelids fluttered and her white hand went to her face. Slowly though, and the caterpillar was no help. He just sat and smoked, staring at a moldy patch in the fabric of the tubes of his hookah.  
  
The haze in her head clung like the smell of sickness, like rotten fruit and bile. She sat up and breathed heavily holding her face to keep it from dripping off. Her hands were red with pulsing flowers coming out of the blue stems in her palms.  
  
She was out of place in the garden, in which birds chirped merrily as drifts of pollen and rose petals danced on invisible lines, glowing in the late afternoon sun.  
  
"What the hell was in that?" she grumbled. But there was no answer from the caterpillar. After a long pause he answered, "go to the north, to Arnica". He puffed his pipe, "She'll help".  
  
Then it began: A milky white substance had begun seeping out of every pore of his body and covering him in a papery shell. Right before he dissapeared completely, he fixed Alice with frightened eyes. "I'm sorry", he mouthed, and then dissapeared into his chrysalis.  
  
The water was cold, it cleared her thoughts. She was disturbed by the caterpillars transformation, "sorry for what?" she asked herself over and over. Over her shoulder the shell of the caterpillar taunted her in silence. And then she turned and headed north, away from the villagers, away from the responsibility. All she wanted was a normal life, a boyfriend maybe, a cat that didn't piss her off. Somehow it seemed there was another life waiting for her.  
  
In a few days she reached a valley with a stream. Beyond a few trees lay a grey wasteland of stone. Alice could see the pathways of the mountain had been smoothed, in fact she could see the ridges resembling stairs on some of the nearer slopes.  
  
"How very odd", she thought. That even after the Queens death there are barren places here. But something smelled different about it,like incense and spice. It didn't feel like the Wonderland she knew. "This must be it," she thought.  
  
A strange grunting noise awoke her.  
  
The smell of body odor and surgical lubricant was overpowering as she noticed a large burly man attempting to take her underwear off.She didn't think, she didn't scream she merely bashed her palm into his ribcage with all her strength. There was a satisfying crunch as she broke his sternum and a few ribs. He gasped and fell to the floor. There were no thoughts now, she didn't know where she was, but it was bad, and she was leaving,right now. There was a knife in her hand. "Where did that come from?" she wondered as she used the orderlies keys to open the door. With one last look of disgust she went into the hall.  
  
Usually there was an orderly stationed at either end of the hall. But noone was there. Alice did not notice this since she remembered nothing of Rutledge's Asylum. But as she skulked down the hall she saw that a fire had started in one of the wings, and that everyone was there trying to stop it. People were screaming. "How the fuck did a fire get started in here?!" A mans voice answered,"maybe a lamp fell over!" The first man screamed that it didn't make any sense, how did stone get lit? This struck Alice as odd as well, but she considered it an act of God and continued looking for an entryway of escape. And there it was, a door leading outside to a field where she could see the glow of a city on the horizon she was home free, almost. "Stop right there!" shouted the doctor as he lunged at Alice, slamming her against the wall. She twisted around and slashed his face,and stabbed him in the thigh. "He screams like a woman", thought Alice as she un-locked the door and into a cool spring night.  
  
The cool night air re-freshed her as fleeting memories came back to her as she pounded bare-foot through the  
  
field. The fire, Wendys tears, the chortling landlord right before she....she. In the distance an alarm began, they had noticed her dissapearance. and she remembered her knife. "Where did I get it?" she thought, but it was gone, probably dropped. Time to go though. it wouldn't be hard to guess which direction she'd gone. The city was her best bet. She needed to find some clothes.  
  
As she cut across an intersecting path she nearly got run-over by a man on horse back. The horse neighed, rearing up dangerously. But she jumped out of the way unhurt. She was up in a flash imploring the man. "Please help me sir! Cut-throats! all of them! Rapists and thieves!" A dark grinning face looked down at her and said nothing. Alice feared she'd come across a real cut-throat when the man said,"we couldn't have that now could we?"his voice was smooth and deep. He extended his hand and pulled Alice into the saddle behind him, and they took off towards the eastern side of the city. Alice was still unnerved by the mans smile but this was the best chance she had.  
  
The dark and the hooting of owls accompanied the horses light canter. The rythym was soothing and she looked about as if she'd never seen the outside before. But soon she came to herself and thanked the man. She could hear his smile as he spoke. "No problem maam' I never liked them doctors anyways, bunch'a crazy folk." Alice sniggered. "You can call me Emil. What should I call you miss?." " Alice", she breathed. He grunted," fine name maam...er Alice." Alice was charmed, but would not show it,"thank you." they were silent for a while when Emil spoke up again. "So what's that place like? Is it as bad as I imagine?" Alice grunted her assent. "Yeah", he said. "I knew it. It aint right for folks to act like they've got any better idea about this world. Me and Molly,(Molly's my wife y'hear? Bless her soul), we always said that if any of our children had a problem that thier family could deal with it. That's what familiy's for." Alice liked him. His voice put her at ease and she even felt a bit drowsy and had unwittingly laid her head against his back. Emil continued," Where're you going maam?" Alice looked around, she was shortwalk from the city. "right here," she said. Emil stopped the horse, and she got off with one final thank you.  
  
As Alice ran away, Emil noticed that Alice wasn't wearing much, the darkness grew brighter around his face.  
  
Stones and branches cut her feet but soon she came onto the city. She was relieved to find herself in a drab dark place where noone could find her. She skulked up the streets btween the pale brick walls as quietly as possible, carefull not to wake the men asleep on the street. "Jack-pot!" exclaimed Alice under her breath. She had found a clothing shop. The door was locked but the shop-keep had forgotten to lock the window. She was in in a moment and went straight for the slacks and shoes. "Perfect. All I need now is a baggy shirt, maybe a scarf." She thought. She found both and even grabbed a mans coat on the way out.  
  
A little down the street she changed behind a dumpster, shoving her hair in the hat and tying her breasts down with the scarf. As she left the alleyway she saw a glittering necklace in the window of a shop. And as she stared at it she found herself remembering.  
  
It was all so wrong, she thought as a few tears spilled down her face. Flashes of the past year flitted through her brain creating more questions than answers. She remembered what had happened before the hospital and she felt terribly alone. She began to drift off, a thousand voices murmuring at the back of her mind all saying the same thing.  
  
"Should we wake it?" Said a raspy little voice in her ear. Alice heard a womans voice, "hold your horses Sam." The voice was smooth and buttery, Alice was sure she was dreaming. At least until a sharp nail poked her and she awoke with a start. Above her and backing away slowly was a tall woman in an elegant dress and corset, and a ring in her nose, smiling. Beside her were two green little gremlin things. Alice sat up, not very scared since they all looked terrified. "Are you Arnica?' She said sleepily. The first gremlin screeched it had red eyes. Arnica looked even more wary now,"How do you know my name? Who sent you?" Alice tittered,"oh don't be silly! The caterpillar sent me!" They all smiled as one and moved forward hands curved over like a Nosferatu picture. "How is the Caterpillar darling?" Crooned Arnica. Alice stood up slowly," oh he's fine. Gone into his chrysalis you know." Arnica clasped her hands in delight and so did the gremlins, 'Oh wonderful! I'm sure he'll be a beautifull butterfly!"  
  
They all stood there grinning at eachother when Arnica started, "Well shall we go? We never get geusts and I'd be ever so happy to hear your story." "Sure!" , said Alice and flanked Arnica.  
  
As they rounded the corner a large black carriage with golden edging came into view. The cab was curtained and smelled heavily of perfume. The smell made Alice giddy.  
  
Instead of horses there were slaves strapped in. Wearing the heads of black stallions, and horsehair loin-cloths. On the heads, where the manes had been, one had straw sticking out all hurdy gurdy, one wore Peacock feathers for it's mane, and the third had gold threads. The straw-headed one out front,  
  
Arnica pulled back the curtain, and Alice began to laugh. Everything twisted as many hands reached out an pulled her in, Arnica following. The carriage very nearly flew as it tipped and turned in slow loops, rattling the whole time Inside Alice felt that she was floating as she was stripped of her clothes. A match flame lit up Arnicas face as she began to smoke a ciggarette, her breasts exposed. Alice could see the glint of metal in her nipples.  
  
Alice was nuzzling and tangling herself in the silk sheets while the hands were pinching and playing, rubbing warm, fragrant, oils into her body.  
  
then the carriage slowed and stopped. The hands dissapeared with a rush of wind. Alice knew they were gone. Dazed she lay there, breathing hard and trying to focus her eyes when she saw Arnica again.  
  
Her body became visible as she blew light into an orb in the carriage wall her smooth back turned to Alice. Then crawling over Arnica straddled her. Alice giggled.  
  
"Yes, you'll make a fine slave." breathed arnica. Alice felt somthing warm and rubbery on her stomach but still closed her eyes as Arnica stroked her face.  
  
Arnica mused for a moment then began speaking again."But I have to break her first. Alices eyes flew open but it was too late. Lights flashed in her brain and then she passed out vaguely noticing the cold breeze on her naked body as she was carried into the castle.  
  
She woke up in a cold dungeon, chained to the wall. 


	2. strange savour

When Alice awoke in the dark musty dungeon her vision was blurry and her wrists ached. A gentle throbbing came from in between her naked legs. Hot and sore, she felt as if a damn inside her soul had opened and poured itself over the fields of fantasy warping every face and place into something new, disturbing, and intriguing. A cool breeze came from a hole in the wall cooling her feverish skin and sex, it felt so good. When she came to a little she noticed a dark form in the corner, peeling an apple. On closer inspection she recognized it as Arnica, who saw that she was awake and got up, jingling slowly over to Alices' side. "Don't worry darling, you're in good hands." She said. With another step Arnica was in the orange sherbert light of the setting sun, smiling wickedly. Alice quietly took this in then began to scream and thrash, spitting obscenities she didn't even know. She couldn't move her hands or feet more than an inch from the wall. Arnica laughed and Alice saw that the apple had been dropped and the knife had begun to melt. It trickled over arnicas hands in nine seperate streams but soon began to fill with blackness. Arnica now held a cat'o'nine tails and proceeded to still Alices frantic thrashings. "I'll break you yet kitten." said Arnica as she sauntered out the door purring.  
  
In the dark Alice cursed the caterpillars betrayal.  
  
When she looked up again a warbling light was glinting off the necklace and the shop window. She felt sick, and her head hurt. There had to be some food somewhere.  
  
An hour later she was in the bustling market. Still disguised as a boy, she lifted a loaf of bread, some jerky, and a nectarine without so much as a dirty look. Freedom was sweet as a nectarine. Alice hoped it would last longer as she tossed the pith.  
  
"I need to find a way out of here." She thought." No doubt, the hospital will be looking for me." In fact as she thought this a great white wagon driven by men in white suits passed by. Alice dove behind a stairway and hoped they hadn't seen her. "Wait!" She thought. "This is silly, I don't even look like myself!" She got up and sauntered into the street, watching the carriage disappear around a corner.  
  
Despite the exhaustion she felt elated and the smell of the ocean danced enticingly through the street. The sun was warm and the breeze was cool, she broke into a laundry room and slept a long time on a pile of clean sheets.  
  
There was a throbbing in her wrists, in her ankles, blood, life, to the tortured tissues. It felt so good. She opened her eyes. Soft candlelight filtered through colored glass splashed on silk sheets. Wine sat beside it, obviously chilled and Alice drank it greedily to soothe her parched throat. Then she sat bolt up right. "Arnica!?"  
  
"Yes?" Cooed the sultry voice out of nowhere. Alice looked for her until she saw her form out of a jet of smoke at the foot of her bed. She was puffing a cigarette with a look of utter drugged abandon. Still naked from the waist up, a sarong of purple and gold was wrapped around her hips.  
  
"What sick game are you playing with me?!" Cried Alice.  
  
Arnica looked truly shocked and knelt on the bed letting the smoke from her cigarette splash across Alices' face. "What ever do you mean dear? Are you having nightmares again?"  
  
Alice felt her eye twitch. Surely her memory served her. Surely this was the enemy, smiling so elegantly, so faultlessly down on her. Arnica put her arms around her and kissed her. "Oh darling! Tell me all about it." Which Alice did. She couldn't explain it, she just had to trust what she saw now. And the whole episode had seemed like a bad dream. When she finished Arnica took her in her arms once more consoling her. "Well it's all-right now darling, you're here with me, safe, nothing will hurt you.  
  
Alice smiled.  
  
Back in the town a search party had been organized. They feared for their queen and would not be left to become an autonomous collective. In the dark cobblestone streets torches filled nearly every hand, pitchforks, rice- threshers, and lengths of chain filled the rest. Grimoire Mozzeltov took the stage and the crowd let out a shrill cry.  
  
The look on Mozzeltovs face was perfect somber absurdity as he quieted the mob. "Three weeks ago!" He began. "Our beloved Alice disappeared after heading in the direction of the Caterpillars garden!" At the mention of the Caterpillar boos and hisses erupted from the crowd. Mozzeltov held up his hands again. "We will find our queen," the crowd cheered. "And we will bring her back to that place which she loves best!" The crowd went wild. "Our dear friend the Syphilitic Pony will lead the expedition!" More cheers as Mozzeltov dissapears into his home and Syphilitic Pony takes the stage fixing the crowd with his empty head of shredded black cloth, his voice a mixture of a horse's neigh and a baby's cry as he yelps out orders.  
  
Inside: Mozzeltov sits in the dark paneled room of his office. No light, save the torchlight which permeates his translucent skin as he slugs down glass after glass of moonshine. He stares out at the crowd glumly. "Fools. I know why she's gone. But it doesn't matter we'll have her even if I have to make a puppet of her. And then, my will will be obeyed." He begins snickering, then laughing, soon he is rolling on the floor with mirth. Outside the people are marching off to find their beloved Alice.  
  
Darkness. Soft, yielding darkness. The smell of...laundry. Alice knew where she was now. But she didn't want to get up so she nestled in the sheets once more and thought about what she might do with herself. She couldn't hide like this forever. Someone would find out that she was a woman, and more so that she was an escapee from Rutledges. Besides, there was nothing here for her. Her family burnt, her own life would be forfeit if she allowed herself to be found. "Something must be done." she thought.  
  
Once more she was assaulted with images of her house crackling, crashing and the screams. She had run for help, but just ran up behind the landlord, cackling by a can of gasoline. She nearly clawed his eyes out, but she was weak from smoke and panic. So he disabled her and got her admitted to Rutledges. Perhaps, there was time for one little errand.  
  
That night as Arnica lay beside her, and as owls hooted, Alice felt a strange coldness against her back and awoke to see that it was stone. In fact she was in the dungeon. In frustration and confusion she cried out, "What the fuck!" But the sound of her voice awoke her, still lying in bed as Arnica stroked her face soothingly. Alice relaxed into the sheets again. Arnica picked up her wrist and looked at it. "What?", asked Alice looking down at her hand to see it shackled. But was it surrounded by metal or fine fingers? She couldn't tell. And as the morning sun came up she found herself in the dungeon. Arnica sauntered in as Alice wept smiling as she came nose to nose with her. "So darling?" Arnica purred. "Are you my slave?" Alice merely spat in Arnicas face, who was now gone as if she'd never been there, and now freezing ocean water gathered at her feet. That night she crept up behind his house, she could see the roly-poly man talking and laughing with his family as if he were truly human but it was not so. Alice sat at the edge of the woods and watched them. It'd be no good if they escaped before she had her revenge, so she waited with a can of gasoline, a rag, and some ether. The moon rose, Alices' rear went numb. And as she stood to let the blood back into her legs their lights turned off. "Perfect!" she whispered. "Soon they'll be asleep. And I'll make sure they never wake up." She entered their tiny daughters room first and left an ether soaked rag over her face. Then proceeding to the parents room she did the same to them, and then proceeded to loot the house of all it's money, a few hundred pounds all in all. Then she tied them to the beds and soaked all the downstairs carpets with the gasoline, took the rags off their faces and waited for them to awake. In the early morning hours he awoke first and began screaming in rage and terror at the intruder. She revealed herself and then walked downstairs dropped a match on the rug and went outside to listen to their screams. Alice cried. She didn't know why, maybe for the little girl, maybe for his wife who probably had no notion of his real nature, maybe for her self and the life she'd lost, the conscience now burning down with the house. Only when the house had been reduced to glowing embers did she leave, soot in her mouth and hair. The only clean spots where her tears had streaked down her cheeks. She had hung there for days and her body ached excruciatingly. The water was now up to her knees and she had a terrible cold sneezing and hacking, she thought she might cough her lungs out before she drowned. She found herself dreaming about that wonderful day she'd spent in Arnicas arms as she dreamt her head fell over in complete exhaustion. The world had begun to disappear when she felt something warm blowing on her neck, then something soft pressing against it. She was afraid to open her eyes, but she had to know. So as the room came into view she saw that her arms were not bound, her body was not frozen. Instead she lay in that bed again wrapped in warm sheets with Arnicas naked body pressed next to hers. Arnica kissed her and she kissed back. She did not know what to say, no exclamation of relief, no cry of anger. Instead she kissed back all too ready to accept this, and they made love. Afterwards: Arnica watched Alice with adoring eyes." Are you my slave?" Alice sat bolt upright. "What?!" Arnica sat up looking confused. "Are you my slave?" she repeated. "I am no ones slave! Especially not yours!" Alice screamed expecting the change, she felt her skin fill with the truth. She knew now, Arnica had slipped and she was there ready to take her the rest of the way down. But there was no change, except Arnica began to cry. In fact she began to cry so hard that her shoulders heaved with her sobs as she hid her face from Alice. Who now embraced the crying woman there before her. "I-I'm sorry luv." She stammered. Arnica moved away across the room. Rage now filled her eyes. " I don't know what to do anymore Alice! You're just not who I knew! Just tell me what to do! Should I leave? Should I stay? Tell me!" Alice swallowed back her guilt. She felt as if she was going mad, but also she felt that this woman should not have to deal with it. "I'm sorry." Was all she could manage to say. There was an uncomfortable silence but then Arnica took a deep breath and addressed Alice again, "Get dressed, I want to show you something." Alice nodded and walked over to the closet and looked through the ornate silk garments and willowy sundresses, she could feel Arnicas eyes on her. Finally she chose a Jade colored geisha outfit with red button loops and a golden dragon looping around the body. She turned to face Arnicas admiring eyes. She was now ushered out onto a deck overlooking a great stone hall lit with glowing orbs, so light blue they were almost white. Turning to their left they walked past tapestries of red and gold. On her right Alice could see a garden through the windows pointed like steeples. They came to a great oaken door where Arnica withdrew a key from where Alice could not tell, and opened the door, which led down a spiraled staircase into a consuming gloom. Alice had begun wondering how they would keep from stumbling in the darkness when more orbs lit the hall with an amber glow as they passed, tiny slits in the walls revealed that they were actually going higher so that Alice grabbed Arnica to keep from falling. Arnica just laughed and continued on. Alice followed tentively and then more boldly. They came to a round room in a tower where Arnica led her to another window with a telescope in it. Peering into the thing Alice saw herself in a dungeon filling with water, naked and chained to the wall. She fell back, Arnica helped her back up, "It's not what you think." Alice gulped and looked down again, it sure looked like her and it seemed as if she could feel the water rising about her waist, and she began to hyperventilate. As she stumbled back again she could not decide where she was, Arnica grabbed her face, "look into my eyes." Alice complied. "Now." Arnica continued, "We can beat this, just stay with me." "Are you my slave?" Alice shook her head and it she felt the water sting her mouth and she spit it out and cried for help. "Alice!" Arnica cried. " I can help you but I need your help. Now, are you my slave?" Alice didn't say yes but didn't say no. The water became warm and sticky and the walls were round and pink. Arnicas voice came from everywhere, "Good! Do you see what my love can do for you Alice?" She rolled Alices' name around like it was a sweet. "I will transform you." Alice lifted her head and the liquid chilled a little, "into what?" she asked. "It can not be described, but I can show you." As Arnica said this lovely indescribably images flitted through her mind as the liquid warmed again. As she lolled about in a dream Arnicas voice murmuring insensibly she heard a strange sound like a tapping, and a male voice calling out her name desperately. Suddenly she was immersed in frozen seawater as she looked up to see the wall cracking. Arnicas face appeared before her again, "Oh God! Alice be careful! He will destroy you!" "Who? Asked Alice. "Never mind", Arnicas voice began to tear, Alice could hear the selfishness in it, she wanted to be loved, but not by this thing. "Alice! I love you!" Pink flashed at her eyes. The tapping turned into a frantic banging and the voice again, "Alice!" it cried, "I'm sorry!" Alices' eyes flew open to see Arnicas pale rotten form floating before her with a long silver tube she was readying to insert in Alices' forehead. The banging continued as the stone began to shatter, "Oh God! I'm so sorry!" It was the caterpillar. Alice looked into the face of death once more and pulled on her chains as her lungs filled with water. As she began to black out the wall opened up sending her out on a giant wave. Arnica screeched as Alice swore she saw a giant butterfly swoop down on her and pick her up carrying her off across the desolate mountain. When she awoke she was laying by a fire on a bed, still naked, but covered and warm. A very soaked butterfly sat by the fire chatting earnestly with someone she couldn't make out in the light, she fell into sleep again as it all came back to her. Arnicas treachery had almost worked, but the one thing she could not hide was the death that infested her soul. Alice sighed as warm darkness covered her senses. 


End file.
